The Indian Experience

Incredible, amazing, stunning to the downright revolting, repulsing, adjectives often falls short when it comes to describing the Indian experience.Like the well worn saying " For everything that is true in India the opposite is also true".
The over bearing curiosity of the average Indian on the street can be intrusive and often irritating. Beggars on the street corner, street urchin boys all seem swarm out of no where and descend on the unsuspecting foreigner travelling in India. The streets are crowded, life often spills over into the sidewalks and roads making walking and driving hazardous. Holy cows lazily block busy intersections. The stench of urine and uncleared garbage greet you in many an Indian city. The air is pungent with car exhaust and fumes. The airports are congested and chaotic. Roads are bumpy and often full of pot holes. Touts are omnipresent.

But through the smokescreen of all this haze and discomfort, another truer picture of India can emerge. An India of innovative roadside enterprises, beautiful art and culture, ancient monuments, verdant forests, divine mountains and glimmering seas.

Wilds of Kanha-December 2002

Located right in the heart of India, this forest consisting of virgin meadows and dense woodlands of Sal and Teak, Kanha is also where Kipling dreamt of Mowgli, Bagheera and Shere Khan.There are two places where tourists can stay. Mukki and Kisli. Kisli is more like a busy village. Mukki, where I stayed in my first visit is quieter and closer to the forest.



These photos are taken from our second visit to Kanha. The bus ride to Kisli from Satna railway station was both nerve and bone wrecking. Winter being the dry season it was also dusty. But as we approached the forest, we could feel the air getting cooler and fresher, the animals and birds got shinier. Even the taken for granted crow got a shiny blue-ish black hue. We reached around dusk. After dinner we went out for a walk. It was a moonlight night. We were at the edge of the core reserve and could hear animal and bird calls. The next few days were spend roaming around inside the forest every morning and afternoon on open Jeeps and on elephant back

Memories of India

The idea behind this blog is share experiences of travelling in India. Growing up in India, my parents would head for the hills, the sea or some place of historical/cultural significance during school holidays. The great snow capped mountains of the Himalays in Garhwal or Kumaon. The Taj on a moonlit evening.The forests of Simlipal and Palamau. The amazing beaches at Puri. All of these and more we saw. But the full extent of the amazing beauty, stunning landscapes and the glorious heritage of architecture was not clearly revealed till I landed in foreign shores some 5 years back.

I love travelling. As I travelled through holiday resorts in Europe, travelled to souther France and travelled on business to assorted places in the middle-east, to Fiji and Southern Africa, images of India from my childhood memories kept flashing in the inner mind. The smell of freshly baked tandoori rotis on dhabas by GT Road. The spectacular colours and sights at the ghats of benares. The hypnotic singing of local villagers in the Shiva temple outside the main complex in Khajuraho.Palm fringed pictures of sea beaches in Goa. These wonderful memories keep pulling me back to India. A country so wondrous so varied so full of surprises, that there are no parallels to what you can experience there.